Confident Blues ready for matchup vs. lowly Kings

The best team in the Western Conference will meet the worst Monday night when the St. Louis Blues continue their three-game road swing with a game against the Los Angeles Kings.

The Blues will enter off a hard-fought 5-2 victory at San Jose on Saturday night, showing that they are ready to resume their success on the road after a recent rough patch away from home.

The Blues broke a 2-2 tie with 11:07 remaining at San Jose on a goal from Alex Pietrangelo then added two more in the final 1:08. It was the Blues' fifth consecutive victory and their second winning streak of at least five games this season.

The Blues won Saturday in Northern California after winning four consecutive contests at home. That streak followed a slide of three consecutive defeats, with two of those coming on the road.

St. Louis is 12-4-3 at home this season, which is nearly identical to their 11-4-3 mark on the road.

"They definitely know how to win," St. Louis coach Craig Berube said, according to NHL.com. "It's character and leadership, that's a big part of it, for sure."

Berube won his 61st game Saturday as Blues head coach to become the winningest coach in franchise history for the first 100 games.

The Kings have been far better at home that on the road this season, but it still hasn't added up to more than a 15-19-4 record. Their 34 points have the Kings bringing up the rear in the Western Conference after they finished in the same spot last season.

The Kings will return home Monday after a six-game road trip where they showed signs of life. Los Angeles went 3-1-2 in that stretch, including a 4-3 overtime victory at Boston. The Kings also forced the Pittsburgh Penguins into a shootout and took the Columbus Blue Jackets into overtime.

In the only defeat in regulation on the trip, the Kings fell 3-2 at Buffalo on Saturday to end their six-game points streak.

"Effort was there, a pretty evenly played game, could've went to either side," Kings coach Todd McLellan told reporters afterward. "Both teams hit a few posts. ... So at the end of the night we come out on the short end, but not disappointed in the effort or what was put into the game."

The Kings had a 1-0 lead in the second period against the Sabres on an Adrian Kempe goal, but Buffalo responded with three goals in succession. The Kings made it close in the final minute on a goal from Dustin Brown.

"We got points in every game except for one so that's really positive, but I would have liked to have seen two points in a couple of the other games and I would have liked to have seen two points (at Buffalo)," Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said. "It's a little bit frustrating."

The Kings lost center Trevor Lewis less than two minutes into Saturday's game with an upper-body injury. Defenseman Kale Clague made his NHL debut for the Kings.

It will be the second of three meetings between the Blues and Kings this season after St. Louis earned a 5-2 victory at home on Oct. 24. Brayden Schenn scored two goals in the first meeting, while goalie Jordan Binnington made 33 saves.

--Field Level Media